To me, one of the most sad/funny aspects of contemporary conservatism is that Newt Gingrich seems to count as some kind of towering intellectual figure. Garance Franke-Ruta reports that she saw him speaking at the Ames Straw Poll where he proclaimed that "Real change is going to require real change." And I suppose it will.
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Big Ideas
12 Aug 2007 09:31 am
Comments (19)
His group, the one that rented the tent, is called "American Solutions for Winning the Future." Honestly, it sounds like a Scientology org.
The future lies before us.
one of the most sad/funny aspects of contemporary conservatism is that Newt Gingrich seems to count as some kind of towering intellectual figure.
They have a more general problem, but Gingrich is a particularly good example of it.
Well, what do you expect? Look at their idea men. Today, George Will opens up with this doozey: "Sen. Barack Obama recently told some Iowa farmers that prices of their crops are not high enough, considering what grocers are charging for other stuff: "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Living near the University of Chicago, Obama has perhaps experienced this outrage..."
Except there is no Whole Foods in Hyde Park. The closest one is...six miles away in South Loop, distinctively NOT part of the South Side of Chicago. This is either unintentionally stupid, or intellectually dishonest.
All the intellect of a turnip, and meanness beyond compare.
"So, Newt, how's the wife?"
All tautologies are tautologies.
Yesterday C-SPAN Radio broadcast a recent National Press Club speech by Gingrich. One of the reporters asked what he would do about national security and terrorism if he were president.
Gingrich started his answer by pausing dramatically. Then he said, in that low, "frankly" tone of his, that ... "I am really worried." He went on to describe how it was bad that terrorists do awful things, but that politicians don't talk about it, nor (he claimed) do other Muslims. He kept saying, emphatically, that we don't talk about it, which proved that most politicians are not being serious about this. The question of what he would actually do about the issue if he were president seems to have slipped his mind.
Real change is going to require real change*.
change = coin, bank, cabbage, lettuce, cash
It's your standard GOP appeal.
Give Newt some credit: Most Republicans are so untrustworthy these days that the only way they can guarantee that they're telling the truth is to stick to tautologies.
I think Newt is uneven. I caught part of his C SPAN appearance as well and I thought it was a good example.
OTOH, there were some ideas that on first view were interesting and thoughtful (some of them on second look don't stand up so well). OTOH, he goes off on frightening tangents of scaremongering and bizarre ideas in which he scares and bemuses me.
Granted, Newt isn't a Harvard man like Matt or Garance, but CSPAN recently broadcast an "ideas" debate between him and Chuck Schumer (another Harvard-educated liberal) and Newt made a lot of sense.
Newt, George Bush and most Republicans in general are only idea people. They get off on announcing big bold ideas but that's all they got. It's enough to woo supporters for an election and the media perpetually but ideas are shit unless you can back them up. Big ideas from empty heads like Bush even worse.
This blog is a nexus of Freds.
Fred Jones, where you at?
Newt at the Jersey Shore:
don't you people understand that if you go in the water, you'll get wet?
I remember the Contract with America that Newt campaigned on in 1994. I don't think he followed through on single part of it. He might be slightly smarter than the average Republican, but he has no integrity whatever - and like a lot of people who are a little bit smart, he's convinced himself that he's An Important Intellectual Figure (Al Gore also suffers from this disease).
She turned me into a Newt!...
I got better.
Comments closed August 26, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
Yes, just like Reagan, Newt brought us all together and taught us to love America again, didn't he?
Posted by El Cid | August 12, 2007 9:45 AM